Building security system

ABSTRACT

A security system that can be used in a home, office, or other building in order to generate alarms or take other actions depending on conditions within the building. The security system may rely on sensors within the building which sense various conditions and collect other data. The information learned from the sensors can be communicated to a location outside the building for processing, such as, but not limited to, processing associated with a need to instigate an alarm.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to building security systems.

2. Background Art

FIG. 1 illustrates a building security system 10 where agateway/security panel 12 within a building 14 processes alarm systeminformation. The panel 12 locally generates an alarm if the alarm systeminformation indicates a suitable security risk. The alarm systeminformation may be derived from a number of sensors 16 positionedthroughout the building 14. The security panel 12 may immediatelygenerate the alarm and/or transmit the alarm to a central monitoringstation 18 for verification. In either case, the need for the alarm isdetermined locally at the building 14.

These local determinations can be problematic, at least, from a serviceand maintenance perspective. Since the gateway/security panel softwareused to assess the need for the alarm resides locally in the building14, any updates or modifications relevant to alarm assessments must bemade at the building 14. This requires the panel 12 to be locallymodified if it is to accommodate new devices and application logic whennew devices, monitoring techniques, or other changes to the buildingsecurity system are desired. This can increase both complexity and costof devices in the building 14 when new monitoring features are added orcurrent monitoring capabilities are adjusted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is pointed out with particularity in the appendedclaims. However, exemplary embodiments and certain features of thepresent invention will be described below in conjunction with theaccompany drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a building security system;

FIG. 2 illustrates a building security system in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart for a method of supporting buildingsecurity in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

FIG. 2 illustrates a building security system 20 in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. The building security system 20 maybe configured to support security-related surveillance and services fora home, office, or other building 22. A security service provider 24,such as a central monitoring station, may communicate with the building22 to support any number of building security processes. The system 20may support security processes that rely on one or more sensors 26, suchas audio, video, temperature, air quality, and presence sensors, tomonitor related conditions within the building 22. Data regarding themonitored conditions can be communicated over a network 28 to a centralmonitoring server 30.

While FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of the invention in connectionwith a building, the invention is not limited to implementation with abuilding. By way of example only, the invention can be implemented withany number of buildings, a facility or the like. Nor does the type ofbuilding(s) or facility(ies) limit the invention. By way of exampleonly, the building(s) and/or facility(ies) could be residential,commercial or the like.

The network 28 may be any type of wireless or wireline network such as,but not limited, to a high speed data network used by cable televisionservice providers to support cable television signaling and/or othertypes of networks used to support high speed data and non-televisionrelated signaling. The network may be used to support continuoustransmission of data from the sensors 26 regardless of whether themonitored conditions have changed. This stream of data can betransmitted to the central monitoring server 30 for further processing.

The central monitoring server 30 may assess the need to instigate analarm from the information provided by the sensors 26. A gateway 32, forexample a settop box (STB), cable modem, router, and/or other serviceprovider/supported device within the building may be used to communicatethe data collected by the sensors 26 regarding the conditions in thebuilding 22 to the central monitoring server 30. The gateway 32encapsulates or otherwise packages the data provided by the sensors 26for transmission to the central monitoring server 30 without performingsecurity-related processing.

The security-related processing associated with triggering the alarms isperformed by the central monitoring server 30. This alleviatesprocessing demands on the gateway 32. If changes or other updates to thesecurity process arc needed, i.e., to support new functionality, homedevices, sensors, etc., the central monitoring server 30 may be updatedinstead of requiring significant updates to the gateway 32.

The central monitoring server 30 may be configured to monitor conditionsin a number of buildings 22 and to separately instigate alarms in eachbuilding 22. Each building 22 may similarly transmit sensed conditionsto the central monitoring server 30 for processing. Because the centralmonitoring server 30 is used instead of the gateway 32 to assess theneed for the alarm, the central monitoring server 30 is updated tosupport updated functionality in each of the buildings 22 withoutrequiring significant updates in the buildings. This can limit the costof updates when the service provider 24 provides additional services tocustomers.

The central monitoring server 30 may include any number of applicationsthat perform any number of security processes, such as, but not limitedto, those associated with elder monitoring, video monitoring, audiomonitoring, medical monitoring, energy management, and/or somecombination thereof

For example, elder monitoring may include monitoring for movementswithin the building 22 and generating an alarm if movements are notdetermined over a period of time. Video monitoring may use facialrecognition or other techniques to assess whether intruders are withinthe building 22. For example, a video camera 40 may be included tocapture video from within the building 22, and a DVR 42 may beginrecording video when presence detectors sense a presence within a roomwhile the building security system 20 is armed. This video can betransmitted to the server 30 for intruder analysis and/or alarmverification. Similarly, audio monitoring can operate with the videomonitoring to support related security assessments. The information fromany sensor 26 can be used with information from the other sensors 26 toassess the need for an alarm.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart 50 for a method of supporting buildingsecurity in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Themethod may be used to instigate any type of alarm and to facilitate anytype of security measure. Instead of detailing each of the numeroustypes of alarms contemplated by the present invention, the describedalarm, or generic alarm, is intended to include any type of alarm. Themethod, without intending to limit the scope and contemplation of thepresent invention, is predominately described with respect to theprocesses used to determine a need to instigate the alarm and otherfeatures associated therewith.

Block 52 relates to sensing one or more conditions within a building 22.This may include the use of any type of sensor 26 to sense any type ofcondition within the building 22. Some of the sensors 26 may be presencesensors that sense the presence of a human or animal, door sensors thatsense whether a door (room, appliance, cabinet, etc.) is opened orclosed, temperature sensors (room, body, etc.), air quality sensors(e.g. carbon monoxide detectors), and the like. The sensors 26 may alsoinclude video, audio, and other multiple media sensors. Each of thesensors 26 are connected to a building network 28 having capabilitiesthat allow the conditions sensed by the sensors 26 to be delivered tothe gateway 32.

Block 54 relates to the gateway 32 transmitting the sensed data to thecentral monitoring server 30. This is done without assessing the need toinstigate or otherwise generate an alarm. Of course, the presentinvention contemplates performing some alarm assessment at the buildingand optionally generating the alarm without reliance or completereliance on the central monitoring server 30. The data may betransmitted over any one-way or two-way wireless (e.g., GSM, CDMA,Wi-Fi, WiMax) or wireline network 28 (e.g., fiber optic, hybrid fibercoaxial, coaxial only, copper pair).

Block 56 relates to determining a need to generate or otherwiseinstigate an alarm. The need to instigate the alarm is determined by thecentral monitoring server 30 based on the information transmitted inBlock 54 and without assessment by the gateway 32. The alarm may be anytype of alarm and may vary depending on the conditions within thebuilding 22. The alarm may be varied over time and in response tochanges in conditions at the building 22, i.e., the urgency of the alarmcan be escalated if conditions change within the building 22.

One type of alarm may be a building-based alarm that requires playbackof an audio alert (siren, message, etc.), actuation of a device (doorlock, fire extinguisher, etc.), or the execution of other operations atthe building 22. Another type of alarm may be a non-building-based alarmthat requires alerting or otherwise communicating with a governmentalservices agency, such as police, fire, medical, or other entity outsidethe building 22. Yet another type of alarm may include some combinationof the building and non-building-based alarms.

Block 58 relates to verifying authenticity of the alarm. Theauthenticity of the alarm may be verified in an effort to combat falsealarms and other inappropriate allocations of resources. In some cases,customers can be penalized if governmental service agencies respond tofalse alarms. The verification process may require the entry of apassword or other security measure to insure an authorized person orentity verifies the need or lack of need for the alarm.

One process for verifying alarm authenticity may require in-buildingverification. The in-building verification may be of the type thatrequires an occupant within the building 22 to verify the necessity ofinstigating the alarm. The central monitoring server 30 may open acommunication channel with the building 22 or, more particularly, withone or more devices in the building 22. The communication may besufficient to control various operations of the device in order torequest an occupant to respond to a verification response message.

One verification request may include displaying a message on atelevision within the building 22. The central monitoring server 30 mayinstruct the STB 34 to display a message on the television 34 thatrequests the occupant to acquiesce to the alarm, such as by selecting abutton on a remote control or on the STB 34. The central monitoringserver 30 may also open a communications session (POTS call, IM session,SMS message, etc.) or VoIP call with a device in the building 22 torequest confirmatory information. The communications necessary to theseoperations and other operations may be carried out over any wireline orwireless network 18, including a cable television network.

Another verification process may include verifying the alarm from otherinformation collected from the building 22. If a fire is detected with afire sensor, for example, the sensors that sense temperature and airquality may be used to verify the fire detected by the fire sensor. Ifan intruder is detected with a presence sensor, for example, video maybe retrieved from the DVR 42 and reviewed by a computer 44 for facialrecognition or played for a human operator to assess the presence of anintruder.

These and other processes of verifying the sensed conditions triggeringthe alarm with other sensed conditions can be helpful if communicationswith the building 22 are lost or otherwise disrupted. Rather thanrelying on communications with the building 22, the central monitoringserver 30 can analyze the information it has already accumulated toverify the need for the alarm. This process can also be helpful if theonly person in the building 22 is an intruder or another individual thatis unwilling or unable to verify authenticity.

Block 60 relates to instigating the alarm. The instigated alarm may varydepending on the events triggering the alarm. The scope, duration,intensity, and other parameters of the alarm may be varied over time.The central monitoring server 30 may adjust or discontinue the alarm ifadditional information is received from the sensors 26 within thebuilding 22 and/or in response to an interrupt. An interrupt may beinstigated if a building occupant's response to the verification requestafter the alarm is instigated and/or if an entity arriving at thebuilding otherwise terminates the alarm.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates a common, extensible protocol for a gateway 32 in abuilding 22 to encapsulate or translate sensor 26 data. This data canthen be sent to one or many application servers 30 that will decode thedata and determine if action needs to be taken based on user-selectedmonitoring criteria. One scenario may include a building 22 that hassigned up for both a building security service and an elder monitoringservice. A motion sensor 26 in the living room can be used to detectmotion in the building 22. The gateway 32 can wrap a data packet fromthe activated motion sensor 26 with a tag that identifies the particularbuilding 22 or gateway 32 and send it to the application server 30. Thedata packet can be received by several, if not all of the applicationservers 30 and used as necessary. The security server 30 can determinethat a motion sensor 26 was activated in the building 22, andoptionally, verify that the building 22 has subscribed to its service.The security server 30 can search its database to verify if the alarm iscurrently armed or disarmed. If the alarm is armed, the security server30 can send a signal to the central monitoring station 24 indicating anintrusion. If it is disarmed, the security server 30 can log the eventand remain inactive. The elder monitoring server 30 can also receive thesame data packet from the building 22 and verify that the building is asubscriber. The elder monitoring server 30 can be configured to notify afriend/neighbor/family member in case there is no “activity” (motion) inthe building 22 for a period of time. Because motion is detected, thecountdown timer can be reset in the elder monitoring server 30. Shouldthe timer reach zero, the alarm notification can be sent.

By building the system 20 in this manner, the gateway 32 can be anextremely inexpensive device or integrated into other devices already inthe building 22. The application can be standard regardless of whatdevices are added to the building 22 or what services are added to thenetwork. Additionally, services may include medical monitoring, audiomonitoring, visual monitoring, or combinations thereof Additionalfeatures include using the gateway 32, television 34, or internet toactivate or deactivate the security system 20 and using theSTB/television 34, or internet to monitor the building 22 from a remotelocation. Optionally, the STB/television 34, or a displayed supportedthrough an application running on it, may be used to check the status ofany one or more of the sensors 26 at anytime, such as to view video ofparticular areas within the building 22 upon hearing a threateningsound, assess whether a door sensor is detecting a door to be open,assess whether the security system 20 has been armed, etc.

The foregoing is predominately described with respect to activating asecurity related alarm, such as but not limited to illuminating a lightsource, displaying a message, calling an emergency response entity,locking doors, activating a siren or taking other security relatedmeasures. The present invention, however, is not intended to be solimited. The present invention contemplates non-security related alarms,such as alarms used to indicate faults or failures within applianceswithin the home, a need to replace a lighting source, a need to answer adoor, and/or to take action in response to any number of measureableevents occurring within a building or facility. As such, the term‘alarm’ as used throughout the foregoing is intended to encompass anytype of message, transmission, activation, or other responsive eventused to communicate a significant, meaningful, relevant or monitored forchange in status as reflected by one or more sensed conditions.

Particular embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed anddescribed above; however, it is to be understood that the disclosedembodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may takevarious alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale,some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details ofparticular components. Therefore, specific structural and functionaldetails disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, butmerely as a representative basis for the claims and/or as arepresentative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variouslyemploy the present invention.

While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described,it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe allpossible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in thespecification are words of description rather than limitation, and it isunderstood that various changes may be made without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device,first sensor data associated with a first sensor at a location;determining, by the computing device, that the first sensor dataindicates an alarm condition at the location; after determining that thefirst sensor data indicates the alarm condition, receiving, by thecomputing device, second sensor data associated with a second sensor atthe location; determining, by the computing device, to activate an alarmbased on a determination that the second sensor data associated with thesecond sensor verifies the alarm condition; and in response todetermining to activate the alarm, transmitting an instruction toactivate the alarm.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first sensorcomprises a fire sensor, and the second sensor is configured to senseone or more of temperature or air quality at the location.
 4. The methodof claim 2, wherein the first sensor comprises a presence sensor, andthe second sensor is configured to capture video at the location.
 5. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the second sensor comprises a deviceconfigured to capture images, the method further comprising: in responseto determining that the first sensor data indicates the alarm conditionat the location, transmitting an instruction for the device to captureone or more images representative of conditions at the location, whereinthe second sensor data comprises the one or more images captured by thedevice.
 6. The method of claim 2, further comprising: after the alarm isactivated, transmitting an instruction to vary one or more of a scope,duration, or intensity of the alarm.
 7. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising: receiving, by the computing device, additional dataassociated with the first sensor or the second sensor; and determining,based on the additional data, to vary one or more of the scope,duration, or intensity of the alarm, wherein transmitting theinstruction to vary one or more of the scope, duration, or intensity ofthe alarm is performed in response to determining to vary one or more ofthe scope, duration, or intensity of the alarm.
 8. The method of claim2, further comprising: transmitting an instruction to deactivate thealarm based on additional data associated with the first sensor or thesecond sensor.
 9. The method of claim 2, wherein the computing devicereceives the first sensor data and the second sensor data from a gatewaydevice at the location.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the gatewaydevice comprises a settop box, a cable modem, or a router.
 11. A methodcomprising: sending, by a computing device, first sensor data associatedwith a first sensor at a location, wherein the first sensor dataindicates an alarm condition at the location; after sending the firstsensor data, receiving, by the computing device, an instruction to senddata to verify the alarm condition; in response to receiving theinstruction, sending, by the computing device, second sensor dataassociated with a second sensor at the location; and receiving, by thecomputing device, an instruction to activate an alarm, wherein theinstruction to activate the alarm is based on the second sensor dataassociated with the second sensor verifying the alarm condition at thelocation.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first sensor comprisesa fire sensor, and the second sensor is configured to sense one or moreof temperature or air quality at the location.
 13. The method of claim11, wherein the first sensor comprises a presence sensor, and the secondsensor is configured to capture video at the location.
 14. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the second sensor comprises a device configured tocapture images, wherein the instruction to send data to verify the alarmcondition comprises an instruction for the device to capture one or moreimages representative of conditions at the location, wherein the secondsensor data comprises the one or more images captured by the device. 15.The method of claim 11, further comprising: after the alarm isactivated, receiving an instruction to vary one or more of a scope,duration, or intensity of the alarm.
 16. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising: sending, by the computing device, additional data associatedwith the first sensor or the second sensor, wherein receiving theinstruction to vary one or more of the scope, duration, or intensity ofthe alarm is performed based on the additional data sent by thecomputing device.
 17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:sending, by the computing device, additional data associated with thefirst sensor or the second sensor; and receiving an instruction todeactivate the alarm after sending the the additional data associatedwith the first sensor or the second sensor.
 18. A method comprising:receiving, by a first computing device, sensor data from a sensor at alocation, wherein the sensor data indicates an alarm condition at thelocation; determining, by the first computing device, a tag thatidentifies the location; sending, by the first computing device, thesensor data and the tag that identifies the location to a secondcomputing device; in response to sending the sensor data and the tag,receiving, by the first computing device, an instruction to activate analarm at the location; and causing the alarm at the location to beactivated.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the sensor data from thesensor comprises first sensor data from a first sensor, the methodfurther comprising: after sending the first sensor data and the tag,receiving, by the first computing device, an instruction to send data toverify the alarm condition at the location; and in response to receivingthe instruction to send data, sending, by the first computing device,second sensor data associated with a second sensor at the location,wherein receiving the instruction to activate the alarm at the locationis performed in response to sending the second sensor data.
 20. Themethod of claim 19, wherein sending the second sensor data comprisessending the second sensor data and the tag that identifies the location.21. The method of claim 18, further comprising: after the alarm isactivated, receiving an instruction to vary one or more of a scope,duration, or intensity of the alarm.